If you ever wondered how would it feel to make a living drawing
illustrations for McDonald’s , The New York Times, Google or Pepsi, you are in
the right place. This season we meet Dan Woodger, a freelance illustrator and designer
from London U.k. killing the scene with his colorful, eye catching characters.

Looking at his portfolio you will quickly realize that Dan has a
memorable career with a bright future in the industry and projects coming from
every corner, but this wasn´t always like that, just four years ago Dan was in
a completely different situation with difficulties to find clients and
struggling to continue his career as illustrator. Giving up was not an option
for him and after working really hard for a year to produce more content, the
miracle happened and Line, the famous messaging app, contacted him to create
one thousand emojis. Since then Dan hasn´t stop working and we meet him in
Taipei to know more about his work.

D. Yes! This is my first time in Taipei! I fallen in love with it here it’s
such a fun city, I’ve had the best time. We’ve packed in so much since we’ve
been here, we visited Elephant Mountain Xiangshan,
Xia-Hai Chenghuang Temple,
and the Raohe Night Market. I’ve also tried some very weird food! Some of which
has been absolutely delicious, I really enjoyed Hujiao bing and I love bubble
tea. However, I have to say, I think Stinky Tofu is a bit of an acquired taste
that I’m not quite ready for yet!

D. I try to have a structured routine whereby I have set working
hours. Normally I like to get to my studio around 7 am and usually finish
between 6 pm-7 pm so on average I would say around 11/12 hours a day, I guess
that works at around 55-60 hours a week. I try to make sure I set some time
aside in the evening and at weekends to do other things outside of illustration
and spend time with my girlfriend, friends and family.

However, when freelancing you’re kind of at the beck and call of the
client, so it depends on the project I’m working on really. At times I have to
work more challenging hours. For instance on the LINE and Samsung projects I
was working around 17 hours a day, 7 days a week! It’s part of the job
really.

D. I prefer to sketch on paper when possible, then I’ll scan my
sketches into the computer to work it up. It’s kind of embarrassing to admit
but I always start projects by sketching out my ideas on sheets of basic
printer paper. I have done this since I was a kid, I just enjoy working onto
loose sheets rather then into a bound sketch book, it just feels more natural
and less restrictive to me.

R. How is it to work with big corporations? Is there a lot of restrictions
to your work?

D. Working with big corporations is fun & it’s exciting, there a
few better ways in which to showcase your work in my opinion. Companies like
McDonald’s and Samsung are household names. To be able share the space and
limelight they occupy can only be a good thing right? What better way to get your
work seen by people?

Of course there can be restrictions, it depends on each client. I
believe the most successful collaborations come when the client and the
advertising agency put trust in you. McDonald’s and Samsung are both perfect
recent examples of this. They allowed me to be creative, use my own ideas and
even my own colours. In doing so I feel like we created something very special.

Also, movies & video games from the late 80’s and early 90’s
Jurassic Park, Jumanji, Terminator, The Neverending Story, Sonic The Hedgehog,
Super Mario. Weirdly, I also found huge inspiration growing up playing GTA Vice
City - I should clarify, this was not because of all the car theft and
violence! I adored the storyline and era it was set in. This game came out
around 2003, I was only about 13/14 years old so I had no idea that GTA Vice
City was a Miami Vice / Scarface parody, but it opened my eyes to so much pop
culture & aesthetics from 1980’s Miami / California that I have since
fallen in love with. Palm trees, sunsets, pastel colours, big sunglasses. You’ll
see tonnes of this sort of thing in my work.

D. Horses. Hate hate hate drawing horses. I don't understand they’re
bodies. Whenever I draw them from memory they end up looking like big muscly
dogs.

R. 有什麼東西是你不喜歡畫的嗎？

D. 馬，我非常非常非常討厭畫馬！我不了解牠的身體構造，任憑印象去畫，不管怎麼樣到頭來都很像一隻肌肉很大的狗。

R. What would you recommend to somebody trying to be a
professional illustrator?

D. Work hard, be yourself, be reliable, be nice.

Work hard - I always say in talks and speaking events that I think
I’m about 20% talented and 80% hard working. I know far far more talented
illustrators than me but what I lack in natural talent I make up for in work
ethic. That’s why I get up so early, It’s so I can go in and work on personal
projects for a couple of hours before starting on client projects.

Be yourself - There are so
many artist and illustrators in the world, scrolling through Instagram and
seeing all the utterly brilliant work of other people, it can feel overwhelming
at times,. Best thing you can do is put the phone down, close your internet
browser and pick up your pencil. Shut out other peoples work for a little while
and focus on your own ideas and work hard at it.

Be reliable - So important. Again, there are much better
illustrators than me, but what I have tried to prove to clients over the years
is that I am reliable. So I make sure I always meet deadlines. This reliability
and trust can often lead to the client / art director coming back to work with
me again.

Be nice - Just be nice to people, it goes a long way. Try and make
an effort to reply to all emails and social media comments if you can - I know
it’s not always possible, and I’m certainly not perfect, but just try to make
the effort with people, it’s nice to be nice.